Powerball Worth $320M Up For Grabs

Have you got the luck of the Irish?

The line forms here, or more likely out on the sidewalk and down the block and into the stairwells. Who wants to be a millionaire, hands up now. They were moving in droves to convenience stores, gas stations and other lottery outlets to get in on Saturday’s Powerball drawing, at $320 million, who wouldn’t. Unless your Donald Trump!

“While it’s business as usual, we are expecting our retail outlets to see an increase in foot traffic over the weekend, as sales have already been brisk,” Jeff Anderson, director of the Idaho Lottery, one of the 43 state lotteries that will take part in Saturday night’s drawing, told NBC station KTVB of Boise, Idaho.

Saturday’s jackpot increased after no one won Wednesday’s top prize of $261.6 million, the 12th straight drawing without a winner, amazing, someone is in for a life change and as we all know this, players were streaming into New Orleans lottery sellers before dawn Friday in what officials called a “Powerball frenzy,” NBC station WDSU of New Orleans reported.

The Multi-State Lottery Association, which administers Powerball, said the odds of hitting the precise combination of five numbers plus the Powerball multiplier were 175,223,510 to 1. Winners can take the full $320 million spread out over 30 years, or they can opt for an immediate one-time payout of $198.3 million. I’ll take the 198M, who needs that amount of money.

The biggest jackpot was handed out only four months ago, when two winners in Arizona and Missouri split $587.5 million. Here are the rest of the top five:

$365 million: One winner in Nebraska on Feb. 18, 2006.

$340 million: Two winners in Oregon on Oct. 19, 2005.

$337 million: One winner on Aug. 15, 2012, in Michigan.

$336.4 million: One winner in Rhode Island on Feb. 11, 2012.

Anderson of the Idaho lottery warned players to be careful, because the prospect of loot like that can lure them into trouble.

“Big Powerball jackpots are a lot of fun,” he said. But “we want to remind everyone that when they do play to only spend what they can afford — not to go overboard. It does only take one ticket to win.”